Laura Ingraham, or Bill O’Reilly, FNC still dominates. Since I personally watch none of the shows listed below, I am basing it just on the numbers. It’s not an attack on anyone’s politics, but nonetheless, the numbers tell a tale. On this night it wasn’t a particularly friendly tale for either CNN or MSNBC.
Live + Same Day Cable News Daily Ratings for August 21 2008
P2+ Total Day
FNC – 1,071,000 viewers
CNN – 559,000 viewers
MSNBC – 577,000 viewers
CNBC – 277,000 viewers
HLN – 321,000 viewers
P2+ Prime Time
FNC – 1,989,000 viewers
CNN –850,000 viewers
MSNBC- 863,000 viewers
CNBC – 152,000 viewers
HLN – 757,000 viewers
25-54 Total Day
FNC – 232,000 viewers
CNN –168,000 viewers
MSNBC – 198,000 viewers
CNBC – 110,000 viewers
HLN- 134,000 viewers
25-54 Prime Time
FNC – 448,000 viewers
CNN – 215,000 viewers
MSNBC – 254,000 viewers
CNBC – 72,000 viewers
HLN – 301,000 viewers
35-64 Total Day
FNC – 463,000 viewers
CNN – 256,000 viewers
MSNBC – 259,000 viewers
CNBC – 146,000 viewers
HLN – 169,000 viewers
35-64 Prime Time
FNC – 780,000 viewers
CNN – 321,000 viewers
MSNBC – 409,000 viewers
CNBC – 84,000 viewers
HLN – 376,000 viewers
Morning programs (6:00AM-9:00AM) P2+ (25-54) (35-64)
FOX & Friends – 928,000 viewers (262,000) (513,000)
American Morning- 386,000 viewers (132,000) (230,000)
Morning Joe- 294,000 viewers (122,000) (148,000)
Squawk Box- 226,000 viewers (117,000) (163,000)
Morning Express w/ Meade- 274,000 viewers (150,000) (181,000)
6PM – P2+ (25-54) (35-64)
Special Report with Brit Hume – 1,593,000 viewers (239,000) (662,000)
Situation Room- 893,000 viewers (228,000) (386,000)
MSNBC Olympics Update- 663,000 viewers (215,000) (275,000)
**S OLY 1**(5PM-8PM)– 635,000 viewers (299,000) (353,000)
Prime News- 347,000 viewers (117,000) (142,000)
7PM – P2+ (25-54) (35-64)
Fox Report w/ Shepard Smith – 1,548,000 viewers (284,000) (631,000)
Lou Dobbs –819,000 viewers (267,000) (370,000)
Hardball w. Chris Matthews – 940,000 viewers (241,000) (435,000)
Glenn Beck – 361,000 viewers (79,000) (149,000)
8PM – P2+ (25-54) (35-64)
The O’Reilly Factor- 2,173,000 viewers (446,000) (806,000)
CNN Election Center-722,000 viewers (190,000) (295,000)
Countdown w. Olbermann – 1,234,000 viewers (313,000) (559,000)
On the Money -253,000 viewers (112,000) (138,000)
Nancy Grace –1,213,000 viewers (407,000) (577,000)
9 PM – P2+ (25-54) (35-64)
Hannity & Colmes – 1,988,000 viewers (475,000) (792,000)
Larry king Live–1,037,000 viewers (218,000) (346,000)
Verdict w/ Dan Abrams– 632,000 viewers (212,000) (292,000)
Fast Money-162,000 viewers (84,000) (88,000)
Glenn Beck- 487,000 viewers (208,000) (265,000)
10 PM P2+ (25-54) (35-64)
On the Record – 1,804,000 viewers (424,000) (742,000)
Anderson Cooper—792,000 viewers (238,000) (323,000)
Countdown w/ Keith Olbermann– 722,000 viewers (237,000) (375,000)
Big Idea w/ Deutsch –a scratch w/ 43,000 viewers (a scratch w/20,000) (a scratch w/26,000)
Nancy Grace – 627,000 viewers (302,000) (315,000)
11 PM P2+ (25-54) (35-64)
The O’Reilly Factor– 1,083,000 viewers (270,000) (469,000)
Anderson Cooper – 593,000 viewers (249,000) (309,000)
MSNBC Special–384,000 viewers (161,000) (158,000)
Mad Money—a scratch w/55,000 viewers (a scratch w/ 29,000) (a scratch w/34,000)
Showbiz Tonight– 317,000 viewers (106,000) (130,000)
P2+ = viewers over the age of 2
(25-54) = Adults 25-54 viewing
(35-64) = Adults 35-64 viewing
Prime Time = 8-11pm
LIVE+SD: The number that watched a program either while it was broadcast OR watched via DVR on the same day [through 3AM the next day] the program was broadcast.
For more information see Numbers 101.
Scratch = when a show’s audience fails to meet minimum Nielsen reporting levels. For more information go here.
Nielsen TV Ratings Data: ©2008 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved.
August 22nd, 2008 at 7:37 pm
It will be interesting to see what effect Rachel Maddow will have on the ratings mix.
Personally, I think she will appeal mainly to the SOHO elite and long standing “Sex in the City” politically savy 'in” crowd. I don't think much viewer excitment will be generated west of the Mississippi.
August 22nd, 2008 at 8:33 pm
Yes, but I doubt Olbermann has much viewership west of the Mississippi either, at least until you hit California. That's their audience.
As for the ratings effect, I believe that Maddow will, within 100k viewers, hold the line after Olbermann. She will do much better if Olbermann finds better stories to finish his newscast with. Like I said a few posts ago, unless its a special comment, I personally turn him off after worsts. No, I don't care that the bigfoot thing you ran a while ago was a hoax, because that was ALSO a #1, so I didn't watch it. No, I don't need to see Olbermann running a clip of Joel McHale running a clip of Olbermann running a clip of Joel McHale running a clip of Olbermann running the clip of him on The Soup.
DO SOMETHING PRODUCTIVE WITH THOSE 5 MINUTES! The whole point of Oddball, according to Olbermann, is to put the 'fun' stuff at the middle of the broadcast.
August 24th, 2008 at 8:52 pm
TO: Chris Merrill
Mr. Olbermann's show, for lack of a better term is not a “newcast” as you state. It is an opinion show. He doesn't report anything, unless you call copy and pasting Media Matters and MoveOn talking point to his teleprompter reporting. his show is more like an hour long rant fest. I don't think it will ever matter who is on MSNBC at this point. Until they offer some type of balance they will continue to fail. They are failing for the same reason Air America did. Nobody wants to listen to the same crap over and over again without hearing a debate or challenge from opposing viewpoints. Of course, in Keith's head he is winning so maybe that's all that matters.
August 24th, 2008 at 10:07 pm
<<<<<Of course, in Keith's head he is winning so maybe that's all that matters.>>>>>
LOL… You said it all. lol
August 25th, 2008 at 7:57 am
You are correct that Olbermann's program is not news but opinion-news
By the direction of his slant, Olbernmann's obviously set himself up as O'Reilly's bete noire and I believe he's doing pretty well with it. He, along with O'Reilly have news-opinion shows.
Because of his audience demographics (much better with the younger crowd) I would imagine MSNBC is very pleased with his performance. The show likely has a pretty good bang for the buck in ad revenue.
Olbermann will likely never be able to compete for viewers with O'Reilly or anyone else on Fox for that matter; First, there are more staunch conservatives than liberals in the country; second, the political affinity toward the right tends to increase substantially as one gets older and older people tend to watch cable television at much higher rates than younger people; e.g. approximately 23% of the US population is over 55 while on the last two reported nights of ratings, an average of 55% of the 8:00 pm Cable “News” audience was over 55%; and on both nights, O'Reilly had over 40% of the total audience.
August 25th, 2008 at 9:10 am
“I would imagine MSNBC is very pleased with his performance.”
I would imagine News Corp is much more pleased. One third of Fox viewers are Democrats which says Fox has more Democrat viewers than MSNBC has viewers.
The objective of any company is to make money
“In 2007, for the first time, Fox News raised more advertising revenue than the combination of CNN and the sister network Headline News, according to the research firm SNL Kagan,” writes Stelter. “It estimates that Fox earned $460 million in advertising last year, while CNN and Headline News netted $434 million and MSNBC earned $137 million.”
August 25th, 2008 at 10:08 am
Olbermann has been very good for MSNBC, they are certainly happy with him from a business perspective.
In terms of the money made by the networks, and the individual shows, we've been told repeatedly by those involved that the # of viewers from 25-54 for prime time is a rough guide to revenue potential for the network as a whole, and that same viewer group for individual shows.